Welcome to Erewhon is a loose adaptation of a philosophical fable published in 1872 by the British writer Samuel Butler. In the fictional city of Erewhon, automation is considered as an evolution of the “machine” species comparable to the evolution of biological species, but at a faster pace. This hypothesis governs the habits and inhabitants, to the smallest aspects of their lives. Humans, animals, and plants are linked in a cloud that processes all mental matter. Algorithms can give voice to the dead. This is how the spirit of Samuel Butler can still circulate through images of the city.
Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon will introduce the project Welcome to Erewhon.
Pierre Cassou-Noguès , philosopher and professor at Paris 8 University, is the author of several books which combine philosophy and fiction as Les Rêves cybernétiques de Norbert Wiener (Seuil, 2014). His last book Technofictions (Cerf, 2019), investigates through eight short stories the various ways in which technology presently transforms our forms of life.
Gwenola Wagon,artist and assistant professor at Paris 8 University, has produced numerous sounds and moving image installations in France and abroad including
Globodrome, Cyborgs dans la brume and World Brain co-directed with Stephane Degoutin.
This event is co-organized by the Cultural services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech. Co-production: CNC - Dicréam, Jeu de Paume, with the support from Artec, ANR, Laboratoire TEAMeD, Université Paris 8.
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